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Young Women Speaking the Economy

What does it mean to get married in America? Add being both young and in college, and it's a messy and confusing world, but we make it work. This is my story.

"Getting married in college? Okay...oh wait, you're both academics?"

This response is becoming more and more familiar to me (coupled by a skeptical, concerned look) when I tell people that I'm planning on getting married while still in college.

In an economic crisis this decision seems horribly uninformed. At face value that is a correct assumption: marriage means an instant change in financial aid status, and additional consideration before deciding on graduate school, jobs, and projects. However these are things that are always connected to getting married in college-financial crisis or no.

The global economic crisis has exacerbated already difficult circumstances. A change in financial aid can be drastic, work study and graduate student instructor positions are not guaranteed, funders of scholarships and fellowships can slash their funding or bow out altogether, and our careers are subject to whims of institutional policy. Getting married is never an easy experience, but it just got harder.